CHAPTER 4.

1. The knowledge of God suppressed by ignorance, many falling away into
superstition. Such persons, however, inexcusable, because their error is
accompanied with pride and stubbornness.

2. Stubbornness the companion of impiety.

3. No pretext can justify superstition. This proved, first, from reason; and,
secondly, from Scripture.

4. The wicked never willingly come into the presence of God. Hence their
hypocrisy. Hence, too, their sense of Deity leads to no good result.

1. BUT though experience testifies that a seed of religion is divinely sown in
all, scarcely one in a hundred is found who cherishes it in his heart, and not
one in whom it grows to maturity so far is it from yielding fruit in its
season. Moreover, while some lose themselves in superstitious observances, and
others, of set purpose, wickedly revolt from God, the result is that, in regard
to the true knowledge of him, all are so degenerate, that in no part of the
world can genuine godliness be found. In saying that some fall away into
superstition, I mean not to insinuate that their excessive absurdity frees them
from guilt; for the blindness under which they labour is almost invariably
accompanied with vain pride and stubbornness. Mingled vanity and pride appear
in this, that when miserable men do seek after God, instead of ascending higher
than themselves as they ought to do, they measure him by their own carnal
stupidity, and, neglecting solid inquiry, fly off to indulge their curiosity in
vain speculation. Hence, they do not conceive of him in the character in which
he is manifested, but imagine him to be whatever their own rashness has
devised. This abyss standing open, they cannot move one footstep without
rushing headlong to destruction. With such an idea of God, nothing which they
may attempt to offer in the way of worship or obedience can have any value in
his sight, because it is not him they worship, but, instead of him, the dream
and figment of their own heart. This corrupt procedure is admirably described
by Paul, when he says, that ìthinking to be wise, they became
foolsî (Rom. 1:22). He had previously said that ìthey became vain
in their imaginations,î but lest any should suppose them blameless, he
afterwards adds that they were deservedly blinded, because, not contented with
sober inquiry, because, arrogating to themselves more than they have any title
to do, they of their own accord court darkness, nay, bewitch themselves with
perverse, empty show. Hence it is that their folly, the result not only of vain
curiosity, but of licentious desire and overweening confidence in the pursuit
of forbidden knowledge, cannot be excused.

2. The expression of David (Psalm 14:1, 53:1), ìThe fool hath said in
his heart, There is no God,î is primarily applied to those who, as will
shortly farther appear, stifle the light of nature, and intentionally stupefy
themselves. We see many, after they have become hardened in a daring course of
sin, madly banishing all remembrance of God, though spontaneously suggested to
them from within, by natural sense. To show how detestable this madness is, the
Psalmist introduces them as distinctly denying that there is a God, because
although they do not disown his essence, they rob him of his justice and
providence, and represent him as sitting idly in heaven. Nothing being less
accordant with the nature of God than to cast off the government of the world,
leaving it to chance, and so to wink at the crimes of men that they may wanton
with impunity in evil courses; it follows, that every man who indulges in
security, after extinguishing all fear of divine Judgment, virtually denies
that there is a God. As a just punishment of the wicked, after they
have closed their own eyes, God makes their hearts dull and heavy, and hence,
seeing, they see not. David, indeed, is the best interpreter of his
own meaning, when he says elsewhere, the wicked has ìno fear of God
before his eyes,î (Psalm 36:1); and, again, ìHe has said in his
heart, God has forgotten; he hideth his face; he will never see it.î Thus
although they are forced to acknowledge that there is some God, they, however,
rob him of his glory by denying his power. For, as Paul declares, ìIf we
believe not, he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself,î (2 Tim. 2:13);
so those who feign to themselves a dead and dumb idol, are truly said to deny
God. It is, moreover, to be observed, that though they struggle with their own
convictions, and would fain not only banish God from their minds, but from
heaven also, their stupefaction is never so complete as to secure them from
being occasionally dragged before the divine tribunal. Still, as no fear
restrains them from rushing violently in the face of God, so long as they are
hurried on by that blind impulse, it cannot be denied that their prevailing
state of mind in regard to him is brutish oblivion.

3. In this way, the vain pretext which many employ to clothe their superstition
is overthrown. They deem it enough that they have some kind of zeal for
religion, how preposterous soever it may be, not observing that true religion
must be conformable to the will of God as its unerring standard; that he can
never deny himself, and is no spectra or phantom, to be metamorphosed at each
individualís caprice. It is easy to see how superstition, with its false
glosses, mocks God, while it tries to please him. Usually fastening merely on
things on which he has declared he sets no value, it either contemptuously
overlooks, or even undisguisedly rejects, the things which he expressly
enjoins, or in which we are assured that he takes pleasure. Those, therefore,
who set up a fictitious worship, merely worship and adore their own delirious
fancies; indeed, they would never dare so to trifle with God, had they not
previously fashioned him after their own childish conceits. Hence that vague
and wandering opinion of Deity is declared by an apostle to be ignorance of
God: ìHowbeit, then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them
which by nature are no gods.î And he elsewhere declares, that the
Ephesians were ìwithout Godî (Eph. 2:12) at the time when they
wandered without any correct knowledge of him. It makes little difference, at
least in this respect, whether you hold the existence of one God, or a
plurality of gods, since, in both cases alike, by departing from the true God,
you have nothing left but an execrable idol. It remains, therefore, to conclude
with Lactantius (Instit. Div. lib 1:2, 6), ìNo religion is
genuine that is not in accordance with truth.î

4. To this fault they add a secondóviz. that when they do think of God
it is against their will; never approaching him without being dragged into his
presence, and when there, instead of the voluntary fear flowing from reverence
of the divine majesty, feeling only that forced and servile fear which divine
Judgment extorts Judgment which, from the impossibility of escape, they are
compelled to dread, but which, while they dread, they at the same time also
hate. To impiety, and to it alone, the saying of Statius properly applies:
ìFear first brought gods into the world,î (Theb. lib. 1).
Those whose inclinations are at variance with the justice of God, knowing that
his tribunal has been erected for the punishment of transgression, earnestly
wish that that tribunal were overthrown. Under the influence of this feeling
they are actually warring against God, justice being one of his essential
attributes. Perceiving that they are always within reach of his power, that
resistance and evasion are alike impossible, they fear and tremble.
Accordingly, to avoid the appearance of condemning a majesty by which all are
overawed, they have recourse to some species of religious observance, never
ceasing meanwhile to defile themselves with every kind of vice, and add crime
to crime, until they have broken the holy law of the Lord in every one of its
requirements, and set his whole righteousness at nought; at all events, they
are not so restrained by their semblance of fear as not to luxuriate and take
pleasure in iniquity, choosing rather to indulge their carnal propensities than
to curb them with the bridle of the Holy Spirit. But since this shadow of
religion (it scarcely even deserves to be called a shadow) is false and vain,
it is easy to infer how much this confused knowledge of God differs from that
piety which is instilled into the breasts of believers, and from which alone
true religion springs. And yet hypocrites would fain, by means of tortuous
windings, make a show of being near to God at the very time they are fleeing
from him. For while the whole life ought to be one perpetual course of
obedience, they rebel without fear in almost all their actions, and seek to
appease him with a few paltry sacrifices; while they ought to serve him with
integrity of heart and holiness of life, they endeavour to procure his favour
by means of frivolous devices and punctilios of no value. Nay, they take
greater license in their grovelling indulgences, because they imagine that they
can fulfil their duty to him by preposterous expiations; in short, while their
confidence ought to have been fixed upon him, they put him aside, and rest in
themselves or the creatures. At length they bewilder themselves in such a maze
of error, that the darkness of ignorance obscures, and ultimately extinguishes,
those sparks which were designed to show them the glory of God. Still, however,
the conviction that there is some Deity continues to exist, like a plant which
can never be completely eradicated, though so corrupt, that it is only capable
of producing the worst of fruit. Nay, we have still stronger evidence of the
proposition for which I now contendóviz. that a sense of Deity is
naturally engraven on the human heart, in the fact, that the very reprobate are
forced to acknowledge it. When at their ease, they can jest about God, and talk
pertly and loquaciously in disparagement of his power; but should despair, from
any cause, overtake them, it will stimulate them to seek him, and dictate
ejaculatory prayers, proving that they were not entirely ignorant of God, but
had perversely suppressed feelings which ought to have been earlier manifested.